JOIN DFA TODAY

Issues : Fight Corporate Power

Corporate leaders are going all-out to rewrite our laws to favor themselves and take away our rights. DFA is determined to stop them. We’re fighting to stop bad trade deals that give corporate lobbyists the power to veto our laws. And we’re working hard to protect a free and open Internet from the big corporations that want to make you pay a fee just to access a website like ours.

The largest television operator in the United States, Sinclair Broadcast Group, is nothing more than a front for pro-Trump propaganda disguised as local news.

For example, this week Sinclair required 200 of their stations to run a horrific segment supporting the use of tear gas against refugee women and children on the border. Here's just a small preview of the piece, featuring long time Trump surrogate Boris Epshteyn:

"The fact of the matter is that this is an attempted invasion of our country."

This is the type of disinformation millions of Americans hear when they tune into their local news right now. All they want are objective updates on their community, local sports teams, and more -- but instead, they’re getting corrupt, pro-Trump propaganda that would make even Fox News blush.

We’re launching a new campaign demanding that Sinclair advertisers end their relationships with this propaganda network. Add your name here and together, we’ll send a message to these advertisers now:

In 2003, Big Pharma got a U.S. law prohibiting the government from using its considerable bargaining clout under Medicare and Medicaid to negotiate lower drug prices.

During his campaign, Trump promised to reverse this law. But the plan he revealed Friday doesn’t touch it. Trump’s plan seeks only to make it easier for private health insurers to negotiate better deals for Medicare beneficiaries.

In reality, private health insurers don’t have anywhere near the clout of Medicare and Medicaid -- which was the whole point of Big Pharma’s getting Congress to ban such negotiations in the first place.

To truly reduce drug prices in America, we need to release Big Pharma’s stranglehold on the U.S. government.

Sign Robert Reich's petition with Democracy for America calling on Congress to allow Medicare and Medicaid to negotiate lower drug prices.

Sinclair Broadcasting has been covertly forcing its local stations to broadcast pro-Trump propaganda -- and now they want to take over one of the most influential media companies in the country.

Millions of local TV news viewers heard eerily similar versions of this Trump-esque speech from dozens of seemingly unrelated news anchors across the country:

“The sharing of biased and false news has become all too common on social media.”

“Some members of the media use their platforms to push their own personal bias.”

“This is extremely dangerous to our democracy.”

The source of the script was Sinclair Broadcasting -- the country's largest broadcaster, which owns 193 television stations and 589 channels in 89 markets.

Over the weekend, a Deadspin video which edited together anchors from coast to coast reading Sinclair's propaganda went viral. And that's not the only way that Sinclair is using its power to advance a radical agenda. The New York Times has reported that the company sends its stations "must-run" news segments that are full of fear-mongering and pro-Trump rhetoric.

No corporation should have the ability to subvert journalistic standards and deceptively disseminate right-wing spin like this. It's bad for our democracy. But if Sinclair gets their way, things will only get worse.

Sinclair is currently trying take over Tribune Media, which would give them ownership over 42 new stations in key markets including New York, Washington D.C, Chicago, and Los Angeles. The Federal Communications Commission and the Justice Department have slowed the deal down, but they could give it the green light at any time.

We need to take action now if we're going to stop the right-wing radicals at Sinclair from gaining even more control over our media. Sign our petition calling on the FCC and the Justice Department to kill the Sinclair-Tribune merger now.

Americans pay more -- by far -- for their prescription drugs than anyone else on the planet. Bernie Sanders is doing something to fix that.

On Tuesday, Bernie introduced a bill in Congress that would allow Americans to import affordable prescription medications from Canada. This overwhelmingly popular measure would give consumers a way to fight back against the price-gouging of pharmaceutical companies while expanding peoples' access to life-saving treatments.

In 2014, the average American spent 40% more on prescription drugs than the average Canadian. That's outrageous, and we need to help Bernie change it.

This isn't the first time that Bernie has introduced legislation to expand working families' access to prescription drugs. In January, he worked with Sen. Amy Klobuchar on an amendment to a budget resolution that would have done the same. But 13 Democrats -- including New Jersey Senator Cory Booker -- worked with Republicans to kill it.

Reporting revealed that many of the Democrats who voted no had strong ties to pharmaceutical companies.

There was an immediate progressive backlash. Bernie blasted his colleagues for lacking the guts to stand up to Big Pharma, while their constituents ramped up the pressure through phone calls and social media.

Now, thanks to that grassroots activism, Booker and 3 other Democrats who voted no are co-sponsoring this bill -- proving just how important it is for us to keep holding establishment Democrats accountable in the Trump era.

Drug prices in the US are soaring, and millions of people are being forced to go without the medications they need. On the campaign trail Donald Trump promised to do something to make drugs more affordable. Now, Bernie and Senate Democrats are calling his bluff.

Help Bernie show Trump and Congress that the American people are demanding relief from Big Pharma's price gouging: Sign our petition supporting the Affordable and Safe Drug Importation Act today.

One of the most horrifying proposals Donald Trump offered during the campaign was a plan to create a registry of Muslims in the United States.

This registry brings to mind some of the worst aspects of American history, and is rooted in bigotry and hate. Trump's plan wouldn't be the first attempt -- a previous version used during the Bush Administration didn't lead to any convictions on terrorism charges, but it did lead to tens of thousands of cases of harassment, arrest, and deportations.

Trump's transition team has signaled they plan to go ahead with this awful plan anyway. We need to stop him -- and that includes making it hard for Trump to actually assemble a registry.

That's where the tech companies of Silicon Valley and beyond come into play. They have amassed huge amounts of data on people living in the United States. If they cooperate with Trump in building a registry of Muslims, those tech companies could do immense damage.

Initially, only Twitter told a reporter from The Intercept that they would refuse to help build such a registry, but other leading tech companies refused to respond. So Democracy for America joined CREDO and human rights groups and sent a letter demanding other tech companies follow Twitter's lead.

As a result of that pressure, Facebook and Microsoft announced this week they too would refuse to help Trump build a registry of Muslims.

But other tech companies -- including Google and Apple -- still won't answer. And their CEOs met with Donald Trump just this week. Will you help pressure them? Sign the petition demanding tech companies protect civil rights and refuse to help Trump build a registry of Muslims in the United States.

The lame duck session of Congress has just begun, and already some Democrats are caving to GOP pressure to pass a massive last-minute giveaway to Big Pharma. Thankfully, Elizabeth Warren is fighting back.

Last night, she gave a barnburner speech on the Senate floor taking aim at the so-called "21st Century Cures" Act and the Democrats supporting it:

"When American voters say Congress is owned by big companies, this bill is exactly what they are talking about. Now, we face a choice.Will this Congress say that yes, we're bought and paid for, or will we stand up and work for the American people?

The American people didn't give Democrats majority support so we could come back to Washington and play dead. They didn't send us here to whimper, whine, or grovel. They sent us here to say NO to efforts to sell Congress to the highest bidder. They sent us here to stand up for what's right. Now, they are watching, waiting, and hoping -- hoping we show some spine and start fighting back when Congress completely ignores the message of the American people and returns to all its same old ways.

Republicans will control this government -- but they cannot hand over that control to big corporations unless Democrats roll over and allow them to do so."

As usual, Sen. Warren nailed it. If Democrats want to be the party of working families, they need to stand up to Republicans who want to shovel money into the pockets of shady drug companies, big dollar GOP donors and Donald Trump -- especially when that means flooding the market with untested and potentially dangerous medical treatments.

Sign our petition telling Democrats in Congress to vote NO on the GOP's gigantic giveaway to drug companies now.

This post-election nightmare ushered in by Donald Trump is getting ugly fast.

On Friday morning, Trump selected Sen. Jeff Sessions to be his attorney general. Sessions is an ultra-conservative who was previously denied a federal judgeship in 1986 for calling the NAACP "un-American," referring to an African-American federal prosecutor as “boy,” and disparaging the Voting Rights Act.

We cannot “wait and see” what a Donald Trump administration will be like. He has already made it abundantly clear.

In the days following the election, Donald Trump has offered a top White House position to a white supremacist, mocked Americans exercising their first amendment right to protest in response to his campaign of hate, and refused to rebuke a campaign surrogate who defended a proposed illegal registration program of Muslim Americans by citing the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II.

Democracy for America -- and our friends at MoveOn, CREDO, and across the progressive movement -- agree: Chuck Schumer and Democratic leaders need to stop playing footsie with Trump and pretending we can find common ground on some issues without also legitimizing Trump’s bigoted and hate-fueled agenda.

Tell Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Senate Democrats to stand up to Trump and refuse to collaborate on his racist agenda. There can be no compromise on rejecting bigotry.

That's right. Today, Democracy for America is joining the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, several leading Senate Democrats, and a strong coalition of organizations to renew the push for a public option for health care -- and we need your help right now to build momentum in Congress.

In 2009 and 2010, Democracy for America members like you led the fight to allow Americans to buy into a public, Medicare-like option in the health care reform bill that became Obamacare. DFA members mobilized hundreds of thousands of Americans to lobby Congress to demand it.

We nearly won. The House passed a public option. But after Joe Lieberman sided with the insurance industry and threatened to filibuster the Obamacare bill, the Senate shied away from it. Instead, they embraced state exchanges.

Unfortunately, despite all the good that Obamacare has done, it's clear that we still need a public option. Greedy insurance companies that never supported health care reform in the first place are jacking up premiums and deductibles, while pulling out of many state exchanges.

It's time to renew the fight for a public option. Democracy for America is joining Senators Bernie Sanders, Jeff Merkley, Chuck Schumer, Patty Murray, and Dick Durbin -- along with the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, Presente, UltraViolet, MoveOn, Daily Kos, Working Families Party, and the AFL-CIO -- to launch a Congressional resolution in support of a public option. We need your help right now to build strong momentum out of the gate.

President Obama announced the Department of Justice would stop using private prisons. But the federal government's largest use of private prisons is for immigration. The Department of Homeland Security just announced that it is going to review whether it should also stop using private prisons.

Bernie Sanders was right when he said "It is wrong to profit from the imprisonment of human beings and the suffering of their families and friends. It's time to end this morally repugnant process, and along with it, the era of mass incarceration."

Sign the petition: Tell the Department of Homeland Security to stop using private prisons.

Thanks for signing our petition calling on Mylan CEO Heather Bresch to stop price gouging people with serious allergies and drop the price of the EpiPen immediately.

On Tuesday, Democracy for America joined Public Action, MoveOn and activists from across the country to deliver more than 750,000 signatures -- including yours! -- to Mylan's corporate headquarters in Pittsburgh, PA.

CREDIT LIZ REID / 90.5 WESA

Our action resulted in plenty of media coverage, including pieces by NPR and the Pittsburgh Press-Gazette. The local activists who joined us told the assembled reporters their personal experiences with EpiPen, and how Mylan's extreme price hikes have impacted their lives:

Rachel Viehman of Squirrel Hill recently used an EpiPen on her 5-year-old daughter Gabriella for the first time, after the girl came into contact with peanut butter that was on a booster seat in a restaurant.

“It was a horrible and terrifying experience, but at the same time I have no doubt that it saved her life,” she said.

The mother of two said her 10-month-old son, Robert, also has food allergies, and that doctors have directed her to keep an EpiPen nearby every time she feeds him something new.

“Companies like Mylan they have the power of life and death over my family and other families, because they know that, for me, I can’t put a price on my child’s life,” Viehman said. - 90.5 WESA 8/30/16

Our delivery made it clear to both Heather Bresch and Congress that Americans are sick and tired of a health care system that allows corporations to extract maximum profits at the expense of peoples' lives and well-being. Democracy for America strongly supports Bernie Sanders's Medicare-for-all single payer health care plan -- and we've been on the front lines fighting for health care reform for more than a decade.

Thanks for helping us send a message to Mylan and to greedy CEOs across the country.

The health insurance industry is at it again: Thanks to a huge planned merger between the country's two largest health insurance companies, Cigna and Anthem, consumers all over this country are facing the prospect of much higher health insurance premiums.

Unfortunately, corporate Democrats like Governor Dannel Malloy of Connecticut are doing everything possible to help this merger go through, despite the devastating affect it would have on working families.

Incredibly, Malloy is also serving as co-Chair of the DNC's Platform Committee, whose job it is to uphold the Democratic Party's commitment to affordable health care for all Americans in the party platform at the convention in July.

It's hard to take the Democratic Party's stance on affordable health care seriously when prominent members of its leadership are using their elected offices to help the insurance industry profit at the expense of consumers.

We need to take a stand at this critical moment in the 2016 election cycle and tell the DNC that we expect them to practice what they preach.

Sign Democracy for America's petition to the DNC: If Gov. Malloy won't stand up to the insurance industry by turning against the Cigna-Anthem merger, he needs to step down from the Platform Committee immediately.

More than 40 days ago, after more than 10 months of trying to reach a fair deal with their bosses, nearly 40,000 Verizon workers put everything on the line and went on strike to protect their jobs.

This strike has become one of the largest and most visible labor strikes in recent history -- and it is beginning to hurt Verizon's bottom line. Earlier this week, Reuters reported that Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam is already spreading the word that the company's second quarter results are likely to take a hit because they've been unwilling to reach a fair deal with their workers.

The fact that leaders in the company are fretting is proof that the union workers are winning. But the strike is taking a toll on the workers' finances, too.

The tens of thousands of Verizon employees who walked out to demand a fair contract have now been without pay and health insurance for more than a month -- and they have no idea when they will get paid again.

The American pharmaceutical giant Pfizer is merging with Allergan in order to shift its tax address offshore to Ireland and avoid paying its fair share of taxes here at home.

By moving its tax address (but not its headquarters and employees) to a tax haven, Pfizer will likely avoid paying the U.S. taxes it owes on about $140 billion in profits it has stashed offshore. That will cost us tens of billions of dollars in lost revenue – money that is needed to maintain critical services here at home. But we can put a stop to it NOW!

Big corporations are trying to stop millions of Americans from getting a raise.

President Obama and the U.S. Department of Labor are proposing to raise the overtime threshold from $23,600 a year to $50,400. This is a BIG deal. Because of it, about 13 million workers will get a raise.

But if the National Retail Federation -- which includes Walmart -- has their way, workers might not ever see a dime of that extra overtime pay.

Statement from Democracy for America about Sec. Clinton's stated opposition to the job-killing Trans-Pacific Partnership.

"Hillary Clinton's decision to join Bernie Sanders and Martin O'Malley in opposing the job-killing Trans-Pacific Partnership demonstrates a keen understanding of where grassroots Democrats and the vast majority of Americans are on this disastrous trade deal.

"The American people don't want yet another NAFTA-style trade deal that will only make it easier to ship more jobs overseas, sell tainted food in our supermarkets, and challenge our laws in corporate courts.

"The unanimous opposition to the job-killing TPP among the major Democratic presidential candidates illustrates just how out of touch the White House is with the American people as it pushes this god-awful trade deal and should be a giant flashing stop sign for any Democrat in Congress even contemplating voting for it." -- Charles Chamberlain, Executive Director, Democracy for America

Democracy for America, of course, is one of the major national progressive organizations that has been fighting the job-killing TPP and "fast track" trade promotion authority it needed to pass for years -- and we'll continue to fight the former going forward.

"Senate Democrats who just voted to proceed on Fast Track for the job-killing Trans-Pacific Partnership openly betrayed the grassroots Democratic activists who helped elect them and have been exceedingly clear in their opposition to any legislation that allows more NAFTA-style trade deals to be jammed through Congress.

"The Senate Democrats who allowed Fast Track should know that this vote will be remembered, it will not be erased, and we will hold you accountable.

"Accountability could mean primaries now or in the future, taking no action in your next difficult election, or support for progressive alternatives in future Senate leadership elections. Make no mistake, the memory of this clear betrayal of working families will follow you for years to come." -- Jim Dean, Chair, Democracy for America

Founded in 2004, DFA is a people-powered PAC with 1 million members who have raised and contributed more than $32.7 million and made more than 10.1 million volunteer calls to help successfully elect 831 progressive candidates nationwide.

Ahead of today's votes on the Medicare-cutting Trade Adjustment Assistance Legislation and Fast Track bill, Democracy for America wanted to lay out the stakes for those Democrats still contemplating voting for it.

Statement from Jim Dean, Chair of Democracy for America to members of Congress about today's votes:

"Ahead of today's votes we wanted to be very clear to Democratic members of Congress: If you vote for either Medicare-cutting Trade Adjustment Assistance legislation or Fast Track Authority for the job-killing Trans-Pacific Partnership, we will not lift a finger or raise a penny to protect you when you're attacked in 2016, we will encourage our progressive allies to join us in leaving you to rot, and we will actively search for opportunities to primary you with a real Democrat.

"Those primaries could happen next year or they could happen in election cycles to come, but, make no mistake, today's vote to cut Medicare and fast track the destruction of American jobs will be remembered and will either haunt you or make you a hero." -- Jim Dean, Chair, Democracy for America

Like many others, DFA's members have been battling Fast Track for the TPP for years -- so this isn't a statement we make lightly.

I'll also note, since our founding in 2004, DFA's one million members have raised and contributed more than $32.7 million and made more than 10.1 million volunteer calls to help successfully elect 831 progressive candidates nationwide.

This month, Corinthian Colleges Inc. closed its remaining campuses, leaving more than 16,000 students in limbo and thousands of employees without a job. It is estimated that the closure of Corinthian Colleges Inc. could cost American taxpayers $214 million.

That's why Rep. Mark Takano joined together with his colleagues Rep. Susan Davis (D-CA), and Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN) to introduce the Protections and Regulations for Our Students Act, also known as the PRO Students Act. This legislation would place tough new rules on the for-profit schools. It will help stop college students from being abused and taken advantage by greedy for-profit executives.

Bernie Sanders is taking a bold stand against the the Trans-Pacific Partnership. A bill to give the president Fast Track authority, designed to push through the TPP with little public debate, is about to be introduced in the Senate.

The TPP is a disastrous trade agreement designed to protect the interests of the largest multi-national corporations at the expense of workers, consumers, the environment and the foundations of American democracy. It will also negatively impact some of the poorest people in the world.